Egalitarian Science

What is Egalitarian Science? Egalitarian Science is Citizen Science, and more specifically, it is a citizen science project focused on studying Bald Eagles and other raptors. Egalitarian Science means that everyone has an opportunity to contribute and participate in scientific research, which means everyone benefits: you, me, and more importantly, the eagles and other raptors that we love.

This research aims to add to the base of knowledge about raptor biology by utilizing new technologies and opportunities that raptor biologists never had before. It used to be that a wildlife biologist had to watch raptors from afar, with only limited opportunities to get a good look at what was happening inside a nest, but not any more. Now there are numerous cameras placed near nests that stream live footage over the Internet, allowing us to watch 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Of course, I don’t recommend watching that much, but for when you are watching, please consider helping out by recording your observations.

I am recruiting Egalitarian Science volunteers to participate in my research by doing something that many of you already love doing—watching nest cameras focused on Bald Eagles (and other raptors)! What I want you to do is to pass along your observations so they can be assembled into one database. This will allow researchers to search and analyze the data to hopefully shed light on things like: what behaviors do we see in nesting Bald Eagles, how common are these behaviors, and how do they differ among Eagles, as well as other raptors.

For the 2017 nesting season I hope to focus the research on three Bald Eagle nests that stream live from Pennsylvania as well as at least one Peregrine Falcon nest (scrape). I also plan to include the Sydney Sea-Eagles for their upcoming season (which starts after the Bald Eagles fledge). If you would like to watch here are some important links:

The Cathedral of Learning Peregrine Falcon scrape, which is on the campus of The University of Pittsburgh, can be watched on this National Aviary site, as well as this Wild Earth site.

The Sydney Sea-Eagle nest, which is located at the Sydney Olympic Park, New South Wales, Australia, can be watched on this Sydney Sea-EagleCAM site.

If you would like to share your observations I have some instructions for participating. Once you look over this information, if you decide you would like to enter your observations into the log, please email me (harmareagle@gmail.com) to get the link to the page with the data form.

Eventually I would like to expand the research to include more nests. If you watch a different camera and would like to have your nest included this season, please send me an email (harmareagle@gmail.com) with some details.